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Amnesty International: Tasers too lethal for police use
December 16th, 2008, 7:00 am · 42 Comments · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
Stun guns widely used by law enforcement - and pitched by manufacturers as a non-lethal way to control combatants - have caused or contributed to more than three dozen officer-involved deaths nationwide, according to a study released today by Amnesty International.
The report looked at 334 deaths – including six in Orange County - of people who lost consciousness after being shocked with police tasers between June 2001 and August 2008.
Among the conclusions: Tasers and other electro-shock weapons are not as safe as they are billed and should not be used by law enforcement pending further study. If police insist on using stun guns, they should only be used when a real firearm is needed.
Amnesty International also recommended that officers not give prolonged or repeated shocks. The activation button should not be pushed for more than five seconds. And the gun should not be used on children, short individuals, pregnant women, the elderly or people with heart conditions.
In practice, police use Tasers much earlier than they would firearms. In fact, they often use them in place of batons. In Orange County, most police departments allow the use of stun guns on pregnant women, children and the elderly — although they advise that extra thought be given before doing so.
Taser International responded that it stands behind its product.
“The context missing from Amnesty is the more than 50,000 incidents in which Taser devices have been used to avoid serious injury or death,” said a written statement from the firm. The company said that 675,000 suspects have been subjected to Taser technology.
Amnesty International found that 33 people who died after being tased by police were armed with a weapon only four had a firearm. The vast majority were unarmed. Some were shocked simply for trying to run away. Others got tased because they didn’t immediately comply — such as Jarrel Gray, a 20-year-old resident of Frederick County, Maryland, who was partially deaf.
Many of those confronted by police were in the throes of a psychotic or drug-induced attack. One 19-year-old man, Tyler Marshall Shaw, was shocked for 109 seconds.
The report found that studies quoted by the Taser manufacturer to show the safety of the electro shock weapon relied mostly on heatlhy, young adults — not the drug -using, hyper excited, mentally or physically ill people most encountered by police.
According to Amnesty International, the vast majority of “suspects” lost consciousness and never regained it.
The six Orange County cases reviewed by Amnesty International were:
- Roman Gallius Pierson, who was tased twice by Brea Police officers and then handcuffed. The coroner ruled that Pierson died of cardiac arrest caused by methamphetamine intoxication.
- Richard Alvarado, who was stunned five times by Tustin Police. He lost consciousness and died the next day.
- Matthew Dunlevy, who was shocked twice by stun gun by Laguna Beach Police. An autopsy said he died of cocaine and ethanol intoxication.
- Jorge Renteria Terriquez, who was stunned four times by Anaheim police officers. He collapsed at the scene and died the next day at the hospital.
- Michael Patrick Lass, who was tased while being handcuffed during an altercation at Orange County Jail. He died within the hour.
- Jason Jesus Gomez, who was tased during an altercation with deputies at the Orange County Jail. A private autopsy said he was critically wounded by blunt force trauma to the head.
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someone should taser amnesty international
I think tazer’s are a great tool to use for law enforcement.. keep in mind that out of those deaths, many suspects were under the influence of Methamphetamines and/or Cocaine, with causes your heart to beat at a high BPM’s… these suspects (most of em) are career criminals anyways… put them all down..
So six people people died in a seven year study, and the stun gun should not be used anymore. I am sorry but if I am being stupid and need to be restrained by officers, I will take my chances with a stun gun rather than being shot. This study is a waste of time and money.
if you can read correctly scotty, it looked at 334 deaths, not 6, in the seven year study DIRECTLY caused by people losing conciousness because of being tasered. the 6 were in orange county. i’m not arguing that some, many, or most (whatever you want to believe), of the suspects were on drugs or not, and whether that increases or decreases heart rate. The fact still remains that the use, albeit most likely very liberal use, of these taser’s triggered the deaths. They might as well have been shot by a gun, because in this case, the end result likely would have been the same for these 334 people. You have to remember, it’s an electric shock at high voltages that mildly paralyzes your nervous system. What are we animals!? i wonder what other countries use tasers? maybe china? russia? you see where i’m getting? no? maybe i should be tasered then…
I have seen people shocked with the taser and they seemed fine after.
What is Amnesty International thinking? “they should only be used when a real firearm is needed”
If I was a cop and a real firearm was needed, I would use a real firearm.
This study wasdone by a well-intentioned organization that is clearly ignorant of the effectiveness of this tool by the police. The article speaks of 6 OC deaths of suspects that had been tazed. Two of which had dope in their system. Ask any crook what they would prefer? Getting shocked by the taser or getting shot; I imagine you would get a unanamous response. By the way, “if a real firearm is needed” it will be used…not a taser. This study was probably conducted by sheepish pacifist hiding in the fetal position waiting for police to come save their sorry rear-end; wake up people. The police are trying to protect you from some very evil people in society. They need every tool we can provide them to allow them to succeed; the taser should not be taken away.
I was refering the the ones in the OC since I live in the OC. SMART citizen.
I’m with A.I., no stun guns! Just shoot the criminals and get it over with! What a stupid study, it actually sounds like they are suggesting that police just go back to using lethal force because stun guns “might harm suspects”. How about this, don’t commit a crime and if you are a suspect do actually what the nice officer says and you won’t get tassed or shot and we all live happily ever after.
The end.
Excuse me for a moment, but maybe I am missing something here. These are not people who are cooperating with the officers. These are suspected perps who are not cooperating with a peace officer. When a man or woman with a badge tells me to do something, I DO IT. How many were complacent and got tazed ? This is not rocket science, folks. But it does require common sense, which is obiously lacking from 334 people.
Hey “a smart citizen” .. I’ve been tased before.. I volunteered to have the two probes shot into my back as opposed to them taping it to me. Guess what? It wasn’t comfortable for the 5 seconds that I was shocked. Did you know that regardless of if you hold down the trigger or press it once, it defaults to 5 seconds. I was immobilzed for 5 seconds and when it stopped, I recovered instantly. Every single death where a taser was used is caused by them being under the influence of narcotics. Don’t criticize a police officer’s actions when confronting a person under the influence of meth, pcp, or cocaine. I’d love to see you try to put two small bracelets around their wrists.
The taser is the best tool that law enforcement can have. I personally have seen it prevent injuries. People are idiots if they think that lethal force by a gun is by comparison the same as being tased. If thats the case, more officer’s should just shoot and kill the people. It would be cheaper.
Hmm, the only way I see these tasers as killling someone is if the tasers were the ones injecting the cocaine and meth into their systems. Thus, giving them an overdose. Or, if the police used the taser as some sort of blunt force object to bash someone’s head in.
Richard Alvarado - High on speedball of heroin and cocaine at the time of his arrest. They failed to mention that part in their study.
Almost all of the people that were tazed were high on drugs and/or alcohol. Which is the reason WHY they were tazed. That led to their cause of death, not the taser.
Whether one chooses to acknowledge, or even observe it, there are abuses of power that exist in our Nation today. I for one applaud Amnesty International and all those who have an interest in preserving human rights. For people to actually act like we EXPECT to be TASERd is a tragic indication of how we as a society are forgetting the founding ideals of America.
Typology.. YOU as a citizen will depict what type of police will protect you. Tie their hands behind their back, and they’ll be afraid to do ANYTHING to the people committing crimes in your neighborhood.
Shame on the citizens who lack the morals and self control and get to the point where they even have to be tasered!
Screw the taser use a bullet!
Save electricity use a FiremArm!
ProTaser, you seem like you’d be a great leader of a dictatorship. However, we live in a democracy, where even though it slips the mind of many people, someone is innocent until proven guilty. Meaning that just because someone was arrested by the police, doesn’t necessarily mean he is guilty of a crime. Slowly, our basic human and civil liberties are being eliminated, and it amazes me how people can just stand by and watch it happen.
but guns aren’t? who are they kidding. I want my own taser, but since Amnesty International doesn’t think they’re cool I guess I’ll have to go with bullets instead
“Slowly, our basic human and civil liberties are being eliminated, and it amazes me how people can just stand by and watch it happen.”
how many crimes have you ever been the victim of? me, more than enough (anything greater than 0 is too many). why do people want the criminals to be the only ones with the rights!
go f.
“Whether one chooses to acknowledge, or even observe it, there are abuses of power that exist in our Nation today. I for one applaud Amnesty International and all those who have an interest in preserving human rights. For people to actually act like we EXPECT to be TASERd is a tragic indication of how we as a society are forgetting the founding ideals of America.”
another Liberal who would rather have “Go Hug A Criminal Day” than allow our law enforcement to actually enforce laws and catch criminals.
go have your own parade, the rest of us will sit here and let the people in blue do their job protecting us and preventing crime.
to a “so-called” smart citizen:
Being tased has nothing to do with being innocent until proven guilty. That is determined during a trial. Tasing someone is done in the field or while in custody when that person is presenting a danger or is uncooperative with officers. So let’s not compare apples and oranges here.
Just like “ProTaser” , I also took the full ride of the taser…and look…I lived to talk about it. Maybe because I’m not loaded on dope.
Oh okay, we can go back to batons and saps, works for me. Do you know what a good baton blow will do to the human knee? Yeah lets continue to take away the tools the police use. The cops have to play by the rules and the law, where the crooks don’t. Real fair fighting with them.
Maybe we should just shoot them!!!
Police Officers cannot use tasers as a means of compliance and if found to do so, you can easily sue and win against the department.
Police Officers used to use a batons and fists before tasers, so take away the tasers, you will have the same study done on physical abuses by batons and fists.
Police Officers cannot just order you about. You have every legal right and protection to refuse an unlawful order. Police Officers think that anything they say is a lawful order but they are grossly mistaken.
Of course the most vocal supporters of tasers, are lo and behold taser companies and police officers!
Did you people think doctors and teachers were going to back their usage?
You know, I have seen this quick expand foam substance, which could be sprayed on an individual and it hardens in seconds, forms a hardened cocoon of foam around the individual…but I am sure someone who is high and heart racing will still die …
so…what is the whole thing then? Catch -22 ?
Yep, just revert back to “old school” for dealing with drugged-up and overly aggresive “suspects”…shoot ‘em!!! Maybe we could actually provide some protection to the police officers that have to respond and deal with these idiots. Maybe if we train the cops in psychoanalysis, they can ask the suspect to sit down so they can calmly work out their “issues”. A.I., pull your heads out…why don’t you learn about the REAL WORLD and do some ride-alongs with the police that actually put their lives on the line between you and some of these criminals, many of which appear to have absolutely NO regard for ANY human life. We’ll see you sober up pretty quick!
Assume that amnesty idiotnational is right, and tasers should not be used. The alternatives are shooting them with real bullets, or beating them like rodney king until they comply.
Given the choice, I would still prefer the taser over getting shot or beat with a club.
Someone needs to get a life.
Absolutely use a taser, as it is non-lethal. What would be better for an uncooperative individual? Being shot by a gun, or by a taser?
What A WASTE OF TIME AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL!! SHAME ON THEM!
Amnesty International is well meaning but misguided. On the other hand, tasers have been used too liberally in the past and it would be best if officers were aware of the possibility that the subject in question could be killed by use of the taser, in some cases, they might opt for other means of subduing the subject.
On the other hand, tasers are superior to firearms in one respect: they are the epitome of the “One shot stop.” Unless you disrupt the CNS, a fatally shot subject is perfectly capable of continuing an attack. I have never heard of a person shot with a taser managing to continue their attack. The only drawback is range and accuracy.
Amnesty International!
What does this biased study have to do with amnesty? Will AI support the citizen who gets beat by some freaked out tweaker? Will they support the officer, who will soon be stripped of his or her taser, pepper spray and baton? The answer is a loud “no!” Of course we can always count on AI and their associaed nitwits, the ACLU and the OCR (especially Greenhut), to immediately pounce on the officer and demand their prosecution, termination of employment and a big ol’ helping of a lawsuit, compliments of a “civil rights” attorney.
This country is falling apart!
No. 6: Jason Gomez: Tazers did not kill Jason, although he was tazered in a systematic pattern many times on the top of both hands. To say that Tazers should be banned is not the issue. The issue is the Orange County Jail which is operated by criminals. My brother was killed by men who inflicted torture, blunt force trauma to the head. To all of you who do not know…Jason had so many injuries that it took 3 days for a private autopsy. You guys want to hear the truth. The truth is that his entire body was bruised from head to toe. The OC Sheriff’s office tried to cover up the blunt force trauma by shreading his brain and heart. The pathologist has never seen anything like it in over 30 years. This was nothing short of torture. The real issue is cowardly cops who use tazers instead of handling issues like real men, then their superiors hide, no word from the D.A., no autopsy report released. BTW, Jason was not on drugs. He was incarcerated a full week prior to being killed. Not everyone is a heroin addict. Rest in Peace Jason. We love you and miss you dearly.
Okay lets get real. People make choices. You choose to drink or do drugs. Stupidly and under the influence you drive or you beat on a loved one. The police arrive and you resist. You need not swing at an officer to be resisting them. Failure to comply with a lawful order like “show me your hands” or “get down on the ground” is resisting. This makes cops nervous. They are people who have lives and families, they want to go home every night. Why should they risk physical harm because someone making bad choices has screwed up so bad that the police had to be called? The Taser makes it possible for more cops to go home every night. Amnesty Int. may have admirable aims over-all but their stance on this is misguided. There is no doubt in my mind that of the 50,000 thousand cases in which people were tased, that more than 334 people would have died if not for the tasers existence. Bullets kill with alarming frequency. Amnesty Int. should head on over to Somalia and make a difference there. Maybe they can talk the warlords into shooting blanks. You are held responsible by a prosecutor for your actions in this country. The police who abuse any weapon should get there day in court like any other citizen. Punish all abusers don’t remove valuable non-lethal tools from our protectors.
Why don’t we just ban doctors instead. Over 200,000 people die EACH Year from medical mistakes, yet 334 people die over a 7 year period so we take a valuable tool away from the cops!
Is it time to put the taser away and go back to putting a 9mm bullet between the bad guys eyes? It would save us some court costs.
I was always taught that it was easy to complain about something so dont complain unless you have a solution. I wonder what AI’s solution for me is? Ive used my Taser 6 times over the past couple of years and at least 5 of those wouldve resulted in me shooting or beating him with my baton. Again, what is the solution AI? I know what their answer is..Anarchy. They dont want police or government intrusion. I believe if cops screw up we need to be held accountable. But, what am I going to do when you take useful tools away from me? BTW Ive been voluntarily Tased several times and Im still here.
to loved jason:
You and your family are a bunch of crooked cry babies who don’t take responsiblity for your own actions. Your mother Theresa was into stealing people’s identities before it was popular. Jason was always overindulged and spoiled rotten as a kid. He “grew up” to be the same kind of adult…didn’t want to follow the rules and always had problems. Jason was a druggie who attacked an innocent nurse and tortured her. Had he attacked someone out on the streets the way he attacked the nurse, he probably would have been shot and not tased.
What do you have to say to the innocent nurse? SERIOUSLY, what about her?
I think the Taser is a valuable tool for law enforcement. I also think that people are foolish to call it “non-lethal”. Less than lethal would be more appropriate. 50,000v can start and stop a heart. Anyway, I think the real issue is when and how often they are used. You can argue it both ways. Remember the 18 year old girl in HB that was shot to death by HBPD? Taser might have improved her chances of surviving that. Anyway, Police need all the tools that we can provide them including the less than lethal Taser.
My son tasered by a orange county police officer for not putting his cigarette out. He was punch to the ground and then tasered. He was taken to the hospital where the officer braged about how he has
tasered over 300 people. He told the other officer to write in the
report that they told him to stand up and he didn’t. My son said
it was so painful and he almost died of a heart attack. There are
bad police out there! Tasers should only there is a real threat of
some kind.
Judy, Im sure you are going to believe your son because he is your son. But were you an eye witness to this? Just like when people say we lie to make our reports better, people lie to make the police sound worse and to try to gain sympathy in court-and guess what sometimes it works.
I must say this, neither you or your son, or ANYONE out there is worth me lying for. I dont need to lie to do my job. I dont want to lose my job and go to prison. Ive put many people there and the thought of that scares the stuff out of me. No one is worth giving up all I have worked for and giving up my integrity!
I am all for us having cameras and recorders and any other recording device you can think of just to have that proof. Again as I said prior to this, Ive used my Taser 6 times and each time wouldve resulted in significant injury to the suspect if I did not have my Taser.
nrt1015 is completely right. There is NO ONE out there that is worth me lying for. I have too have worked too hard for everything I have. My integrity is the most important thing I have.
I have used my Taser 5 times and each and every time it kept me from having to use a greater amount of force which would have resulted in significant injury to the suspect. In each of the times I have used the Taser, the suspect received nothing more than minor puncture wounds from the probes. I have even had suspects thank me for not giving them lasting injuries.
That’s cool. Get rid of them, let’s reinvent hats & bats.
Think the real question here, folks, is how many times the taser has been used compared to how many times someobody died from the usage of a taser. I’m guessing the percentage is very, very low. I’m not even taking into account that lots of these deaths were partially a result of the victims, if you can call them that, having drugs in their system. When I say drugs, I’m not referring to Robitussin or Tylenol, either.
i was taserd for no reason never gave them a hard time. never refused arrest complied to every step of the law. the sad thing was i was hand cuffed at the time of the incedent, nor was i never taken to the hospital.when taken to the jail was treated worst….. need to say no more and all this was because of a domestic!!!!????? place port st. lucie county florida,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,10/25/08
TASER international has produced what can only be described as the best thing since sliced bread.
The damage that occurs from blunt force trauma, usually caused by a D cell flashlight or a baton is at minimum devastating these are some of the possibilities, fractures, broken bones, concusions, pick one.
The damage caused by a hollow point is permanent. Wether it be from a .380 on one end of the spectrum to a .45 on the other end. The kenectic energy released from any of the rounds alone is devestating,but it does not stop there.
The round enters the body, causing a cavity that does not close. It may go in as a tiny object but the end result is massive blood loss, shattered bones, usually multiple organ failure and my personal favorite shock.
The bottom line is that all of these people are criminals and people forget that. They forget that these CRIMINALS put themselves into a situation that can only end badly. If you don’t want to stare down a TASER which in comparison is benign, a beating from a flashlight or baton, or shot DON’T BE A CRIMINAL.
I was tasered by an off duty cop at a club. He said I resisted arrest but realy the police are the real criminals any body that disagrees must live under a rock. All those ignorant people that say tassers are good have never felt what they can do and must think that cops are somekind of angels. There are bad people on both sides of the law and police brutality is real. Law enforcement is a money game. Protect and serve is what they want you to believe try calling them for something serious it takes them over an hour to show up.